The Frog Collector

The army, the king and Lilian arrived at the place where Mirian was and surrounded her. The old woman continued digging without caring about the people around her.

“Mom, it’s over!”, said Lilian. “We already know where the plants are. Stop digging. We came here to put an end to all this today, she continued without getting an answer.

“Surrender Mirian, it’s the end!”, said the king seeing the woman in the same task.

Lilian found this strange, looked toward the house and asked the king for a wineskin of water. The king gave it to her suspiciously. And Lilian walked closer to the witch.

“What are you going to do?”, asked the king.

Lilian approached the old woman and threw some water on her. The body crumbled like sand where the water fell. Lilian’s eyes widened and she pulled Mirian to her side and saw only a body that looked like Mirian’s, but pale, with white eyes and that was still trying to dig up the earth. Everyone was startled and Lilian fell to the ground in terror screaming with tears in her eyes:

“She is inside the house. Help my daughter!”.

The soldiers raised their shields and immediately set out for the witch’s house. The king helped Lilian to her feet and they quickly went to accompany the army. Lilian was shivering and whispering nonstop:

“The same trick… We fell for the same trick!”.

“She will not escape this time”, the king told her trying to calm her, not only her but him too.

When they arrived near the door of the house, the soldiers saw a thick smoke under their feet and suddenly they were falling to the ground one by one. Lilian turned to the king and before she could say any words, she collapsed. Only the king was left standing. He checked to see if they were breathing. “They are alive, but I don’t know when they will wake up”, he thought.

“This woman… she has thought of everything! She knows about my condition and Agatha’s, I bet she prepared traps especially for both of us too”, said the king to himself.

He looked at the soldiers on the ground, at Lilian, the book of spells beside her and then at the dark entrance to the house and said:

“Forgive me Ellen!”.

***

Mirian looked down at her hands, turned to the shaken group, smiled and said:

“I memorized the spells well!”

The witch kept looking at the box in Emily’s hands. The girl was holding it tightly. Agatha had her hands to her mouth still looking at the fallen soldiers. James regretted throwing his sword at the wall. The group backed off as Mirian approached them slowly.

“You better give me this box, Emily. I’ve waited a long time for this, and you won’t be able to stop me. Do you want to end up like them?”, said Mirian pointing to the dead soldiers.

“Come and get it”, Emily said bravely.

“What are you doing?”, asked the princess.

“You spent too many flowers on these spells you made, didn’t you?”, shouted Emily to the witch, who stopped advancing. “That witch the soldiers saw is a fake and must have consumed a lot of flowers. And also these rays and camouflage… If you wanted to finish us off, you would have done it already, since you don’t spare any effort to get what you want”.

“That annoying voice of yours… Let me show you something”, Mirian said nervously, preparing to cast a spell.

“Behind me!”, the princess said, positioning herself in front of them.

Mirian whispered a spell, but only small sparks of lightning appeared on her fingertips. The woman was perplexed.

“Arrest her James. Don’t let her say a word”, said Emily to the prince who ran to Mirian.

The prince moved forward, but when he was close to Mirian, he fell to the ground to the astonishment of Emily and Agatha.

“James!”, shouted the princess.

“Lucky for me, you don’t need many flowers to do certain spells”, said the old woman.

Then a thick smoke enveloped the two girls. Agatha continued to stand, saw Emily, unconscious, fall to the ground with the box scattering the flowers.

The princess ran and knelt down to gather the black flowers back into the box. Her heart was racing. She didn’t know whether to run to her friend or to her beloved further ahead or even what she would do to deal with the witch. Then she thought of her father, Lilian and the army. What happened to them? Why weren’t they coming? Suddenly she heard Mirian’s voice in the distance:

“Wretch… Nothing can affect you, can it? I want to see you not be affected by this!”, said the furious old woman, taking the sword from James that was stuck in the wall near the entrance to the room.

Mirian went toward the fainted prince furiously pressing the sword into her hands. Agatha looked around. She saw no way out of the situation. Then she looked at the box in her hand and only had time to think: “I’m sorry, mother. Then she took a kernel of a flower from the box and brought it to her mouth.

“No… No…”, Emily faintly tried to say.

However, Agatha stopped abruptly when she saw that the witch was standing still. She was looking everywhere in the room. Agatha looked too and saw the walls of the room crumbling from the ceiling. Suddenly all the walls were gone and the house no longer existed. Only the furniture remained there.

“You?”, said Mirian, seeing the king and Lilian still recovering, leaning on his shoulder. “I will kill them first”, she said and ran up to Agatha.

However, a strong wind blew over the witch and threw her far away, preventing her from attacking.

The king saw the five bodies where once there was a hallway and was saddened. James and Emily began to get up as the effect of the spell wore off. They rejoined the princess who was now sitting on the floor very tired. Both the yellow crumb that was in her hands and the black petals had evaporated.

“Agatha… do you know… any magic words?”, asked Emily with wide eyes.

“No”, said the princess.

“I’m glad you didn’t eat the flower. It wouldn’t do any good without the words, you would only lose your power”, her shaken friend told her.

“It’s true… I didn’t know what to do… I didn’t think straight”, replied the princess.

James approached Agatha with even more pain coursing through his body. He sat down next to her and with one arm embraced her.

“What an intense day”, he said.

“Look what a simple marriage proposal turned into”, she said, and they smiled.

At this moment the king and Lilian arrived near them. The woman was still recovering. The king laid Lilian down next to Emily and handed her the book of spells he was holding. The girl embraced her mother with contagious joy, the princess and the prince stood up and the king embraced them.

“Are you all right?”, the king asked the three.

“We are”, they answered.

“How nice! I love you very much”, said the king and turning to Emily, he spoke: “You too Emily. You don’t remember me, but I’ve known you since you were little. It’s a pity that you have stayed in this prison all this time. If I knew we’d be here a long time ago to get you out of here”.

As the king spoke, Emily vaguely recalled times when she was a child and someone took her in and out of that prison. And her eyes watered.

She nodded and everyone hugged each other.

***

Mirian stood up with pain in her body and saw in the distance everyone gathering and hugging each other. “They are acting as if they have already won,” she thought even more angrily and picked up again the sword that had fallen.

***

“Attention! It’s not over yet. Be on your guard. Take care of Lilian while I try to talk to Mirian one last time”, the king told them, seeing Mirian in the distance getting up.

“Let’s go, Dad. She won’t change”, said the princess.

“My little one, maybe this time she will listen to me. She knows there is no more way out”, said the king.

“Careful my lord. She still has my sword”, the prince told him.

“Your Majesty, she tried to use a magic against us and it didn’t work. She probably used almost every flower she found on the mattress. But be careful, there are spells that use only a few of them”, Emily told him.

The king nodded. Then a great movement began near the king. It was the soldiers who had fainted at the back door of the house. They stood in front of him and the group, protecting them.

“So you are awake”, said the king, smiling.

“We were careless, sir. It won’t happen again!”, said one of the soldiers.

“It’s okay. She doesn’t have many tricks left, but still, be alert! I’ll talk to the witch… those who are strongest stay with me, the others prepare the bodies of the soldiers who were killed. We will take them from here”, informed the king.

Some soldiers escorted him with their shields up as he walked toward Mirian. Agatha, James and Emily stayed to help Lilian recover. Agatha, apprehensive, followed her father with her gaze.

“Calm down, even if Mirian uses magic it won’t hit him”, the prince told him.

***

The king advanced cautiously until he reached Mirian. He stayed ahead of the soldiers who surrounded Mirian. When he was about ten paces from her he said:

“It’s over, Mirian! This time you know it’s true. We’re leaving here now. This is your last chance to change. You can have a life beyond here. Just give up these flowers that have always brought sadness to all of us. Look how long you have been stuck in this place. But it doesn’t have to end like this. Come on!”.

Mirian listened intently with her head down and looking at James’s sword. Then she threw it forward.

***

“Is she surrendering?”, asked the impressed prince, watching the scene from afar.

The princess began to smile. The joy took over the group.

“Where is the box?”, asked Lilian.

“Here!”, replied Emily, handing it over.

“Good job! Nice of you to destroy this house and also throw the witch away with that wind”, declared Lilian, fully recovered. “How did you learn it?”, she asked.

Emily were confused.

“Didn’t you do that?”, questioned the princess.

Lilian turned serious. Everyone looked at the king’s direction.

***

The king was very happy with Mirian’s attitude.

“I will ask Agatha…”, he started to say.

But Mirian raised her head in fury. Her eyes were white, which startled everyone.

***

Suddenly a strong glow involved everyone inside the prison. Everyone covered their eyes, except the princess who could see everything clearly. She shouted to her father, but only heard the witch’s voice and saw James’ sword magically rise from the ground and go quickly towards the king. Then the sword went through the body of the king who could not see anything.

The princess brought her hands to her mouth and ran toward her father. Then the glow began to fail.

“… I need more flowers”, said Mirian.

The glow ended and everyone was stunned to witness what had happened. Then Lilian, Emily and James also went towards the fallen king. The soldiers arrested Mirian who could do nothing to stop it. Some of them wanted to kill her right there.

“Enough!”, said Lilian with tears in her eyes and started eating all the magic flowers inside the box.

“What are you doing, Mom?”, Emily asked her, who was chewing the plants without stopping.

The woman didn’t answer and continued eating. And then having eaten almost all the plants, she dropped the box on the ground and went toward Mirian. The soldiers tried to stop her, but Lilian with a closed countenance and white eyes ordered:

“Go to your king. I’ll deal with her”.

The soldiers left Lilian alone. Mirian sat down on the floor with no strength and looked at the box mournfully.

“Ohiah Wobh Gyon… Ohiah Wobh Gyon…”, lamented the old witch.

“The magic that was not described in the book…”, said Lilian. “I wonder what it does”

And then, Lilian held Mirian’s head with both hands, looked deep into her eyes and said:

“Ohiah Wobh Gyon!”

Mirian shuddered and fell to the ground paralyzed.